WASHINGTON (AP) — After spending several weeks working largely behind closed doors, Vice President-elect JD Vance returned to Capitol Hill this week in a recent, more visible role: helping Donald Trump make his most controversial Cabinet decisions through confirmation by the Senate to meet Senate, where Vance has served for the past two years.
Vance arrived at the Capitol on Wednesday with former Rep. Matt Gaetz and spent the morning attending meetings between Trump’s nominee for attorney general and key Republicans, including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The effort was in vain: a day later, Gaetz announced that he was withdrawing his name because the allegations of human trafficking for sexual exploitation were being investigated and the reality was unlikely to be confirmed.
On Thursday morning, Vance was back, this time accompanying Pete Hegseth, the “Fox & Friends Weekend” host whom Trump has nominated to be the next defense secretary. Hegseth has also been accused of sexual assault, which he denies.
Vance is expected to accompany other candidates to meetings in the coming weeks as he tries to utilize the two years he spent in the Senate to push through Trump’s decisions.
Vance is taking on an atypical role as Senate leader for Trump nominees
The task of introducing candidates around Capitol Hill is unusual for a vice president-elect. Typically the job goes to a former senator who has close ties on the Hill or to a younger aide.
But this time the role suits Vance, said Marc Short, who served as Trump’s first director of legislative affairs as well as chief of staff to Trump’s first vice president Mike Pence, who spent more than a decade in Congress and led the former president’s transition before his first term .
“JD likely has many current allies in the Senate and so it makes sense to use him in this capacity,” Short said.
Unlike the first Trump transition, which took place in front of cameras at Trump Tower in New York and the future president’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, this one in Palm Beach, Florida, took place largely behind closed doors.
There, a compact group of officials and staff meet daily at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to screen possible candidates and conduct interviews with applicants. The group includes Elon Musk, the billionaire who spent so much time at the club that Trump joked he couldn’t get rid of him.
Vance was a constant presence, even when he held back. The Ohio senator has spent much of the last two weeks in Palm Beach, playing an vigorous role in the transition, serving as honorary chairman, according to people familiar with his plans.
The Mar-a-Lago scene is a far cry from Vance’s tough upbringing
Vance lived in a cottage on the grounds of the Gilded Club, where the rooms are decorated with cherubs, oriental rugs and elaborate gold inlays. It’s a world away from the famously tough upbringing Vance documented in his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” that made him notable.
His compact children also came to live with him at Mar-a-Lago at times. Vance was photographed wearing shorts and a polo shirt, playing with his children on the property’s seawall, with a gigantic palm frond and a robotic U.S. Secret Service security dog in the distance.
On the uncommon days he is not in Palm Beach, Vance joined the meetings remotely via Zoom.
Although he has taken a break from television interviews after months of constant appearances, Vance actively participated in the meetings that began immediately after the election and included interviews and presentations on the candidates’ pros and cons.
Among those interviewed: candidates to succeed FBI Director Christopher Wray, Vance wrote in a now-deleted social media post.
Vance pushed back against criticism that he missed a Senate vote confirming one of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, writing that at the time he “met with President Trump to interview several positions for our administration, including also for the FBI director.” ”
“I tend to think that getting an FBI director who dismantles the deep state is more important than Republicans losing a vote 49-46 instead of 49-45,” Vance added on X. “But that’s just me.”
Vance makes his voice heard as Trump expands his Cabinet
While Vance didn’t come into the transition with a list of people he wanted to see in specific roles, he and his friend, Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr., who is also a member of the transition team, were eager to see the former Democratic Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. find roles in government.
In the end, Trump chose Gabbard to be the next director of national intelligence, a powerful position that sits at the top of the nation’s intelligence community and serves as the president’s top intelligence adviser. And he chose Kennedy to head the Department of Health and Human Services, a massive agency that oversees everything from drug and food safety to Medicare and Medicaid.
Vance was also a massive supporter of Tom Homan, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement who will serve as Trump’s “border czar.”
In another sign of Vance’s influence, James Braid, a top adviser to the senator, is expected to serve as Trump’s director of legislative affairs.
Allies say it is too early to discuss what portfolio Vance might take on in the White House. While he is interested in issues like trade, immigration and technology policy, Vance sees his job as doing whatever Trump needs.
Vance was seen giving his son’s Boy Scout troop a tour of the Capitol days after the election and was there on the day of the leadership election. He returned in earnest this week, first with Gaetz — arguably Trump’s most controversial pick — and then with Hegseth, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017, according to an investigative report released this week. Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter was consensual and denied any wrongdoing.
Vance welcomed Hegseth to his Senate office as Republican senators, including those who sit on the Senate Armed Services Committee, streamed in to meet with the nominee for defense secretary.
While a president’s nominees typically visit the offices of individual senators and meet them on their own turf, the recent senator – who is accompanied everywhere by a gigantic Secret Service detail that makes getting around more cumbersome – instead brought Gaetz to a room at the Capitol and Hegseth on Wednesday to his office on Thursday. Senators came to them.
Vance made it to the vote on Wednesday and Thursday, but missed others on Thursday afternoon.
Going forward, Vance will draw on his background in the Senate
Vance is expected to continue to develop his relationships in the Senate even after Trump takes office. But many Republicans there have long-standing relationships with Trump himself.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said Trump was often the first to call him back when he tried to reach senior White House officials during Trump’s first term.
“He has the most active Rolodex of almost anyone I’ve ever known,” Cramer said, adding that Vance would be a good addition.
“They’re going to divide the names based on who has the most persuasive power here,” Cramer said, but added: “Whoever his liaison is is not going to work as hard as he does.”
Cramer praised the Ohio senator, saying he was “pleasant” and “interesting” to be with.
“He doesn’t have long relationships,” he said. “But we all like people who have done what we’ve done. “I mean, that’s kind of a natural kinship, but probably not as personally connected.”
Under the Constitution, Vance will also be tasked with presiding over the Senate and breaking tie votes. But he probably won’t be needed as much as Kamala Harris, who broke a record number of votes for Democrats as vice president, because Republicans will have a larger cushion in the chamber next year.
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Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
